where to start

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
61

would be great if some experienced drivers/instructors could give me their opinion on this matter please .

so today I had my third day of training and I am very happy with my progress however I am a little bit confused by my instructor .

so I was doing 55mph on a dual carriageway with 60 mph speed limit and a roundabout waiting for us at the end , my instructor told me to turn right at the roundabout and at that point speed limit reduced to 40 so after checking my mirrors I adjusted my speed then i started to see SLOW DOWN signs and yellow paintings and SLOW DOWN marks on the road at which point I could clearly see the roundabout so again I checked my mirrors , indicated to the right and positioned myself on the right lane to turn right at the roundabout and reduced my speed to almost 15-20mph and changed to the 5th gear to prepare myself for the roundabout and everything went really well in my opinion .

however my instructor told me off again for slowing down way too early , he said I shouldn’t have reduced my speed to 15-20 that early , I said but there were clear signs , yellow paintings and also marks on the road telling me to SLOW DOWN, to which he replied no you should have ignored that , those signs are for those who are going fast and they need to slow down but you were already driving slowly so you didn’t need to slowdown even more .
and I was thinking to myself , first the speed limit changed form 60 to 40 and I adjusted my speed , after the speed limit reduction SLOW DOWN signs appeared on the road , how could I be doing the wrong thing by slowing down .

I just don’t get it .

62

See what is between you and the hazard then judge the slow down so you are neither rushing up to it nor dawdling up to it - experience is the key here
Always err on the slower side so you can at least increase speed if slowing too early
The examiner will want to see safe progress where it is possible

63

ROG:
See what is between you and the hazard then judge the slow down so you are neither rushing up to it nor dawdling up to it - experience is the key here
Always err on the slower side so you can at least increase speed if slowing too early
The examiner will want to see safe progress where it is possible

Thanks Rog .

my instructor thinks I don’t drive realisticaly by which he means I don’t drive fast enough to the speed limit , today I was doing 30 on a 40 dual carriageway and he told me off , or in another situation I tried to do forward planning by taking my foot off the gas when I saw a traffic light ahead and he told me off for slowing down way too early .

He doesn’t like it when I go the wrong way during the independent drive and I must admit I do it quite a lot but I just know that I wouldn’t get marked for that as long as I am doing the driving correctly .

I still move the steering wheel too much when I can just go on a straight line .

what he is happy with :

control of vehicle and use of the four over four manual gearbox .
my mirrors work , he said he never had to remind me to check my mirrors .
my reversing exercise .
up hill moving off .

one more full training on Monday and test on Tuesday , fingers crossed .

64

Ask yourself - "Why am I not doing the speed limit :question: " - if you can give yourself a reasonable answer then ok :smiley: but if you cannot then :blush:

65

“Appropriate speed” is easily explained.

Drive as fast as you can - all the time - safely and legally.

Works every time.

eg You have to question if it’s safe to drive at 15mph in the right lane a little distance from the roundabout.

Fast as you can - safely and legally. Can’t go wrong.

Good luck all, Pete S :laughing: :laughing:

66

Pete S:
“Appropriate speed” is easily explained.

Drive as fast as you can - all the time - safely and legally.

Works every time.

eg You have to question if it’s safe to drive at 15mph in the right lane a little distance from the roundabout.

Fast as you can - safely and legally. Can’t go wrong.

Good luck all, Pete S :laughing: :laughing:

Thanks Pete and Reg .

Right now I am going through all the old topics of the forum , I typed FAILED on the search bar and going through them one by one writing down all the reasons and situations were people failed , I am also writing down REG and PETE’s advice and tips to forum members .

I won’t learn anything until I write it down no matter how simple it is , once written down it is in my head and I own it , so it’s good that after four days of training and driving trucks for the first time in my life now I have the weekend to go through everything and gain as much knowledge as possible .
hopefully Monday will be my best day of training but tomorrow I am going to drive to Slough ( my training and test centre area ) to practice using my own car canceling the centre mirror , just to familiarise myself with the roads , roundabouts , junctions , restrictions , signs , narrow roads etc and practice as many roundabouts as possible .

67

That is a good idea to go around the area test is in to at least get a feel for it, best advise I can give from over on my own thread of failing is go with the flow, unless you are going to hit something, go down a weight/height restriction etc going the wrong way/wrong lane you won’t fail, even though that voice in your head will scream do it perfect panicking and sudden movements will far more likely result in things going badly

68

SquireT:
That is a good idea to go around the area test is in to at least get a feel for it, best advise I can give from over on my own thread of failing is go with the flow, unless you are going to hit something, go down a weight/height restriction etc going the wrong way/wrong lane you won’t fail, even though that voice in your head will scream do it perfect panicking and sudden movements will far more likely result in things going badly

Appreciate your advice man , this forum Really is a great place to learn .
yes today and yesterday I went training in my own car in test area and recorded the whole journey on camera , tomorrow i’m gonna record my last day of training on camera too, my instructor allowed it , would be good to look at my driving and watch my mistakes and bad habits .

69

Best of luck in the test.

There isn’t a box to be ticked on the report form for fuel economy or saving the brake linings of the vehicle, but there are a couple of entries for “progress”:

  1. “undue hesitation” and

  2. “appropriate speed”.

70

Noremac:
Best of luck in the test.

There isn’t a box to be ticked on the report form for fuel economy or saving the brake linings of the vehicle, but there are a couple of entries for “progress”:

  1. “undue hesitation” and

  2. “appropriate speed”.

yes you are right , I identified that problem of my driving as well as many other mistakes , it was great to have the weekend to go through everything my instructor told me as well as reading a lot of articles , watching videos etc to identify all my mistakes that I didn’t think they were big deals when I first started my training .
today was by far the best day of my training , I drove much better than the other four days , drove safely and legally to the speed limit , made no mistake at roundabouts etc .
another two hours of practice before my test should get me in the right mood for the test at 2 pm tomorrow .

and I must say I am very very impressed with my instructor , he is soooo professional and good at what he does , he’s been an instructor at Wallace for 26 years and still takes his job very very seriously , I feel sorry for him that he had to deal with me since last Tuesday hahaha

however I feel like I am heavily dependant on him to tell me what to do when I drive so I actually think at this point that I feel ready and confident for my test I might drive better with the examiner sitting next to me than having my instructor next to me .

He doesn’t think I would make any serious mistakes and thinks I can pass however he warned me that I could fail if I don’t pay enough attention and make too many minors .

we shall find out tomorrow

I will let you guys know about the result

71

All the best for tomorrow, get a good night sleep and try to be as calm and relaxed as possible, drive just as you did today, and as I need to keep in my head next time think first don’t panic, getting lost, wrong lanes etc might make the heart rate go mad but it won’t fail you!

Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk

72

Oi oi oi passed my class 2 first time with a Manual lorry , i can’t believe it .
The examiner admired my courage for doing it with a manual lorry
What a happy day
Thanks everyone for all your help over the last few days/weeks/months

Now I can do my class 1 training and test with automatic.
I’m gonna book my class 1 straight away .

Happy days

73

Well done mate!!!

Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk

74

SquireT:
Well done mate!!!

Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk

Thanks mate but I won’t miss that bloody manual gearbox hahaha
it was such a struggle from the first moment of my training until the last second .

so when the test started I answered all the questions correctly , nailed the reversing exercise but I did take a forward shunt just to be on the safe side and to make sure I don’t hit anything , in my training I done the reversing exercise correctly every single time without taking a shunt but didn’t want to take any risk on my test day .

During the independent drive of course I went the wrong way as usual but done the driving correctly and during the time I was lost I noticed the 7.5 t restricted area and avoided it , kept up with the speed limit at all time even when going on 20 mph roads , I did commentary driving so I explained my every single action , every time I noticed a road sign I mentioned it to let the examiner know I am aware of what’s going on .

At one point I thought I failed because of an idiot BMW driver , I approached a tight narrow roundabout with 15mph in gear 6 and the roundabout was clear so I didn’t stop and entered the roundabout , just as I entered MR IDIOT also decided to enter the roundabout from the road on my left , so I had to brake harshly and obviously speed went down so the vehicle was not moving forward in gear 6 anymore, It took me a bit of time to put the switch on the gear down and change to gear 4 to be able to get out of the bloody roundabout , however my instructor didn’t even mark me for that because he saw it was not my fault and I did everything correctly .

so yes in the end he said that in one or two occasions my left mirror was a little bit too close to pedestrians but the situation with the BMW was not my fault and admired my courage and determination to learn to drive a truck with a manual gearbox .

I must admit I was in tears of joy all the way back home from the test centre , I put so much effort into this and waited such a long time for my training and test to start and the manual gearbox was such a jerk , it made my life so difficult and when the BMW situation happened I thought I failed but stayed calm and continued to drive nicely anyways , so to come back home with a pass certificate made me really emotional , rewarded in the end .

I must give credit to my instructor too , so impressed with his professionalism , he prepared me for my test in five days and made me pass first time with a manual lorry , imagine last week Tuesday was my first time ever sitting in a truck either as the passenger or driver .

this forum was a massive help too , again thank you so much for all your help .

75

Good luck on the class 1, keep us updated and how jobs etc go always good to hear the first steps into trucking life

Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk

76

Well done mate

77

Nick911:
Oi oi oi passed my class 2 first time with a Manual lorry

How did you find the clutch - easy/hard :question:

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78

ROG:

Nick911:
Oi oi oi passed my class 2 first time with a Manual lorry

How did you find the clutch - easy/hard :question:

210

Thanks Rog

The clutch itself was not hard my problem was the gears , going up the gears no problem but changing the gears down was a pain .

79

Have you driven a manual car yet :question:

80

ROG:
Have you driven a manual car yet :question:

Oh yes back home I drove manual cars for four years , when I moved to the U.K. in 2011 and applied for my driving licence , I was still new over here and didn’t know the rules properly and stupidly used my brother’s automatic car on my test day hahaha I know so dumb , so all these years I’ve been driving automatic cars and in the end I had to go the hard way for my HGV licence but I’m glad it’s done now .

Question : will my DQC card arrive with my driving licence together or do I need to apply for it separately ?
I applied for my tacho card two weeks ago when I passed my CPC demonstration test and I received my tacho card today .

I have a job interview on Thursday .